1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a service providing system for providing predetermined services to a user of a portable information terminal, in which a non-contact IC is built in, via the portable information terminal.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, a system for simplifying a membership registration procedure and for improving convenience of users has been proposed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-44935 for example in a system in which a plurality of shops and groups jointly administer its members. This system is what registers member's information in a whole member database of a server by correlating with an ID of an IC tag held by the member. In registering a new member in a shop, a reader of the shop reads the ID of the IC tag to collate to the whole member database based on the read ID. A shop terminal registers the member by obtaining the member's information from the whole member database.
The conventional system described above obtains the member's information  necessary for the registration of the member from the whole member database of the server. Accordingly, there has been a problem that the member cannot be registered  when the shop terminal is not connected with the server. Still more, there has been a  problem even when the shop terminal is connected with the server that it takes time to  register the member when traffic of the network is crowded or when the server is heavily loaded. There has been also a problem that because transmission/receiving of  the member's information is concluded between the server and the shop terminal, the user  is unable to select the member's information to be transmitted to the shop terminal. Furthermore, it has been unable to select information and membership registration level  required by the user by the conventional system. That is, it has been unable to provide  services corresponding to needs and desire of the respective users, i.e., corresponding to  the membership registration levels, such as services for users who just want information  on a shop and do not want to register the membership, who occasionally want information and who want to have a point service and the like.